Right now, if she hadn’t spent so many resources to return to her original form, she would have actually been much stronger.
"H-how did you....young?" Efrem barely managed.
Holly grinned. "You want a biology lesson now, Efrem? I'm not going to explain epigenetic expression or stem cells to you. I evolved. You didn't."
Efrem needed to try something else. He was physically touching Holly, which meant he could use his ability to the maximum to draw out hers. The monster that was Holly frowned as Efrem dove into her power, locating the boars she had just absorbed. Half of them still had some kind of will and were wrestling with her. The others were already dead...tamed.
He reached for those and pulled them back, attaching chains of light and force to them.
Holly screamed, "No!" She let go, breaking the connection.
As soon as he was free, Efrem jumped back. He sensed he'd only been able to absorb a quarter of the boars. Now that he'd been connected so closely, he understood a lot more about how to use Holly’s power.
Efrem burned half of the boar life energy he’d stolen, just like he had used his own life earlier. One second, he was at least ninety years old, maybe even over one hundred. The next second passed, and he was almost back to being twenty years old again. His wrinkles smoothed out, his back straightened, and his breathing eased. A hundred other things happened that he couldn't explain, but it felt great.
He shook his head, remembering what he'd said earlier that day about multiplayer online games. Game developers tried to make the character abilities and archetypes balanced, but it was an impossible task. There were always some abilities more powerful than others. Holly's power seed ability wasn't just unfair; it was practically cheating.
The rest of the boars Efrem had absorbed filled him with power, granting him massive strength. He flexed his fingers. He absently realized he and Holly had never broken up. “Holly, I think we should see other people. It’s not me, it’s you.” He could deal with fighting to the death with his girlfriend when she had turned into a literal monster, but it still felt right to end things.
Her eyes widened before she smiled without humor. Efrem took the opportunity to draw his machete from his belt and slash. Holly dodged backwards, demonstrating inhuman speed, and managed to slap the flat of the blade with the back of her hand. She hit with so much force, the weapon spun out of Efrem’s hand and into a patch of bushes.
After that, Efrem leapt back and Holly’s eyes narrowed. They both stood still, watching each other, and Efrem readied himself. Holly had more flesh to feed her power, and was far more skilled in her ability. If they kept fighting head-on, she'd win, hands down.
Efrem moved first, darting toward one of the fallen logs. He was at least three times faster now than with Jin's telekinetic bursts. Holly sped after him, catching up almost instantly.
He picked up one of the giant sharpened logs effortlessly. To him, it weighed nearly nothing. He blocked Holly's punch with the log.
It shattered, but he was already far away with another log in each hand. Holly growled, lunging after him, her fingers outstretched with nails long and sharp as claws. When she made contact, the wood disintegrated into chips, sawdust, and rot.
He heard her laugh behind the log. What the hell had just happened?
Holly sighed arrogantly, and said more to herself than Efrem, "I affect biology. Plants are also life. Interesting result."
Efrem knew he was screwed. Winning against Holly with her power just wasn't an option anymore. Isla's ability could be countered easily with Holly's, too. This meant he only really had one option other than to lie down and die. He’d hoped for another way, but sometimes the only way out of the forest was through it.
This didn’t mean he had to like it, though.
Holly cocked her head to the side. "Thank you for helping me discover something new about my power, Cole. After I make it back, I will be unstoppable. Maybe I could be a queen. Queen Holly. Nice, huh?"
Efrem reached inside himself and summoned Ricardo's darkness. He burned the energy of a few more of the boars that remained inside of him. Pure darkness leaked out of the pores of his skin until he was completely covered in shadow. He could see through it, of course.
But an emptiness began to grow inside of Efrem as well. This was the terrible void that Ricardo had carried with him his whole life, either what had driven him insane, or a product of his insanity. Now despite being hollow, it leaked bloodlust, trying to poison Efrem’s body and mind.
He fought for control of the shadow, afraid of blindly killing Isla. But part of him remembered how at peace the little girl had seemed at the thought of her own death, and how it was really him who wanted her to live, to remember everyone who’d died on the island. In the midst of his struggle with the darkness, Efrem accepted that he, and only he, could make his life meaningful. Ultimately, he had to answer to himself. That thought grounded him, stalling the black hole growing inside him. In the end, he couldn’t truly control the darkness, so he directed it at Holly.
Holly slammed into him, her titanic strength overpowering. Efrem's back was on the ground now. Holly pressed her hand on his head, but the shadow armor blocked her touch. Efrem could sense she was trying to manipulate his body again somehow.
Efrem braced himself, but saw Holly's expression changed from feral glee to confusion.
She muttered, "What?"
This was his chance. When Holly had killed Ricardo, she had touched the man on the head. She’d never tried to use her powers inside the black fog.
Now he knew why, he’d figured it out.
Holly's power was able to affect biology. Meanwhile, the shadow wasn't organic at all. In fact, based on physics and the natural world, the inky darkness likely shouldn’t exist at all.
Efrem took a page from Ricardo's playbook and expanded the shadow outward, burning a large chunk of energy to do so. The plateau became covered in black fog. Now he wasn't just inside of it--Efrem was the fog.
Holly slammed the ground where his body should have been. Fog Efrem could feel she was trying to expand her body’s natural sense to find him. It wouldn’t work, though.
Efrem located the knife on the ground that Holly had carried--Ricardo’s knife. He used it to slice Holly across the back. She screamed, but almost instantly healed herself. Efrem was invisible, untouchable, and he used the knife to cut her over and over again while Holly burned her considerable reserves to heal.
He quickly realized that it would take too long for her to die this way. She healed too quickly, and despite being a selfish psycho now, she was still wicked smart. She might just figure out a way to counter the dark fog. Plus, the hole inside of him was struggling for dominance, trying to take over. All of that sadness and grief he felt now, it told him he wouldn’t need to experience it anymore if he just gave the nothingness control.
The idea was seductive. For a moment, Efrem was tempted to give in, but he realized it was an escape from his responsibility. Truthfully, Efrem loved the power he felt, but he knew he couldn't live with it anymore. It was too dangerous. He was strong now, but it was only a matter of time until the emptiness won.
The powers they had all manifested on the island were expressions of who they were and what they really desired. Holly, the scientist, wanted to evolve and grow. Jin had wanted control and visible power. Sheriff wanted to live in the future with his wife. Annie wanted excitement in her life.
Efrem created some distance and condensed the fog inside himself, but did not absorb it again. His skin wasn't covered in the shadow armor anymore to protect him. Holly raced toward him, and Efrem's neck tightened under the grip of her claws. Her gaze was cold and studious as she tilted his head, studying him. There was no sign of the woman he loved there, not anymore.
Somehow, this gave him a bit of relief in the face of what he was about to do. Efrem could sense Holly trying to change his body’s chemistry again. Before she could actually accomplish anything, he gathered up the blac
k cloud into an orb, and slammed Ricardo’s vile power--his emptiness, confusion, and depravity--into her naked chest.
Holly started, surprised, but then smiled. She laughed. "How sweet. You're giving me more power before you die?"
Efrem's throat was too tight to say anything. He could feel her accepting the darkness wholly into her being, lusting for its power. That's really all she wanted, to become better. It was what drove her to be a great student and why she had been attracted to Efrem's commitment to find creative solutions to life’s problems.
Suddenly, Holly's face twitched. She frowned. "What did you do?" She released his neck.
Now that he wasn’t being held up anymore, Efrem collapsed to his knees. He choked for air, burning the orc life energy inside of him to heal. Holly backed away. Her lithe, beautiful, naked body twisted. Growths expanded out of her flesh.
Efrem watched as her body expanded, quickly losing her human form. Soon, she was nothing more than a large mass of meat again. Efrem approached and placed his hand on the pulsing monster. He could sense she’d grown out of self-defense. The shadow power’s attached emptiness had grown inside of her, swallowing her up from the inside.
The emptiness wasn’t an actual black hole like a collapsed star, but a black hole was the best way he could describe what it felt like. Efrem had been able to fight it off because of his power to copy other abilities. However, it wasn't something Holly could fight or even understand.
She’d always only ever looked at the physical side of the world. Meanwhile, the black hole was magical, psychological, or maybe even spiritual. Either way, Holly was currently using every ounce of her power and life force to fight being swallowed, but it wasn’t doing her much good.
The young woman’s monstrous new body folded in on itself, growing smaller with each second. In mere moments, only the old hag was left, shaking with effort. Efrem backed up cautiously and severed his connection to her power.
Isla walked up to Efrem and took his hand in hers. She wasn't using her power, just a child seeking comfort. Efrem gripped back tightly, knowing it would be his turn to die next. They watched together in silence as Holly shook like a leaf in a storm, fighting to continue existing.
The hag bent over. First, her feet went, sucked into a point of pure darkness on the ground. Next, her torso. Holly slammed her hands into the dirt like she was trying to get out of a pool, or quicksand. She looked at Efrem with a pure, malevolent hate he'd never seen from her before.
Then she lifted one arm. Half of her body was sucked into the hole in the ground as she held her arm aloft. Efrem waited for her to disappear, holding his breath, waiting to release all the emotions he'd been holding back.
Instead of staring at the dying Holly, he turned to see how Isla was holding up.
Physically, the girl still looked to be in her mid-thirties, a gaunt version of herself. She had the dignified bearing of someone older now even though she was still a child. They’d all truly been through a lot. Isla smiled warmly at him, and opened her mouth to say something.
Suddenly, a hand slapped onto her forehead. The scene seemed to slow down, taking on the slow-motion qualities of a nightmare to Efrem. Isla's face flashed a brief expression of confusion. Efrem's brain worked overtime, and he realized that Holly had somehow used her ability to lengthen her arm.
He was still holding Isla's hand, connected to her. Efrem burned as much life as he could muster in a split second to fight off whatever Holly was doing. He had power, but he’d reacted slowly--hopefully it wouldn’t be too late. Five years. A decade. Eight decades, working through his reserve of orc energy and tapping his own life force. In a blink, he was an old man again.
Isla’s expression of confusion turned to horror. Blood exploded from her eyes, ears, and mouth. As she fell to the ground, Efrem went with her, and his eyes followed the elongated, desiccated arm as it was pulled down the distant black hole. Efrem’s eyes met Holly’s inhuman, yellow eyes right before the hole swallowed them. They were full of spite and humor. She’d given him a final goodbye.
After Holly was completely gone, the darkness on the ground that had consumed her split and disappeared. Meanwhile, Holly’s, Ricardo’s, and Isla's abilities vanished from his senses, gone forever.
Efrem held Isla's bloody head in his aged, spotted hands as he wept. He almost missed the nearby portal glowing brightly before Dolos appeared, hovering above.
He’d won the match, against his wishes, and it had cost him everything.
Chapter 19
Efrem couldn’t stop crying. It felt like everything hurt--his body, his heart, his worldview, even his soul.
Dolos floated dispassionately above, indifferent to Efrem's pain. It could have been ten minutes, or an hour, but Efrem somehow finally felt like he ran out of tears, which helped him pull himself back together. As he looked up, the floating god rolled his eyes impatiently and said, "Congratulations. You have completed the experiment successfully. As a reward, I will return you to your original world, as promised."
Efrem's stiff body loosened and his skin tightened. He was young once more. He didn't feel much better, but now he could stand, so he did.
Dolos said, "You may now use the portal to go wherever you wish."
Efrem slowly shook his head. The anger was gone now; he just wanted answers. "That's it? I watched people kill my friends. I saw my friends kill my other friend. Regular people turned into killers and monsters just to reach this portal, to save themselves. And now I go home like nothing happened?"
"Yes," Dolos said with a shrug. "You were going to die anyways in the tsunami. I am the great god Dolos, merciful and wise.”
"But why this experiment? Why the death match?" Efrem insisted. "When the tsunami came, Holly was the love of my life. Me and Jin made peace. Then this all started, and in three hours Holly was eating Jin! Just three damn hours! Three hours for her to become a monster! And now you expect me to go home and try to forget that, like…like everything is fine? Now I will always remember that hag...thing instead of my girlfriend. I can't live like that! You might as well kill me right now."
Dolos shrugged again and polished his knuckles on his colorful clothing. "Mortals and their emotions.” He sighed. “No one had to kill anyone. All of you could have worked together, reached the final area together peacefully, chosen a single person to go through the portal, and that would be that. The remaining participants could have just waited for the ring to disappear and gone out to explore the world I transported you to.”
“Wait...we didn’t need to kill each other? Then why didn’t the portal work for Isla?”
“Because there was still a participant in play,” explained Dolos. “As long as a struggle for supremacy was still active, the portal would stay dormant. Even a feeble monkey brain like a Terran should have grasped this.”
Efrem’s mouth moved for a few seconds. Finally, he took a different track, trying to ease his pain. But any more revelations about how truly pointless all of his suffering had been, and he might just break. "The power seeds, they were your creation. The seeds must have changed our personalities somehow, our morals."
"No," Dolos countered. "That's not how they work. Your puny mortal mind can't comprehend how such things are created, much less how they affect the user.” Dolos yawned. “So are you going through the portal or can I leave? The ring will disappear in one more day."
In that moment, all Efrem felt for Dolos was fear. Gods were not like he’d read in myths. Dolos was very real, unfathomably powerful, and totally indifferent. Mortals just didn't matter to him beyond being a test subject. Efrem didn’t feel pity if he accidentally stepped on an ant. He wondered if Dolos would care, either.
This didn’t mean mortals didn’t matter, though. Efrem had wanted Isla to live so the others’ sacrifices would have value. This was Efrem's duty now.
He was the only person left who knew what happened on the island. He’d cheated death to remember everyone. People on Earth, all his family back hom
e, had likely just gotten a report of a deadly tsunami. Efrem could return as the lone survivor, help the families of his dead friends through their grief.
Yes, this would give all the losses, all the sacrifices meaning. He refused to accept that he’d gotten another chance at life and that everything on the island had happened for nothing.
If he embraced this new responsibility, maybe it would give him some measure of peace.
He walked to the bushes where he’d lost his--Sheriff’s--machete, and tucked it into his belt. Then he walked to the portal, standing before it. Light from the glowing gateway penetrated his eyelids when he blinked.
Efrem didn’t want to antagonize Dolos now, but he didn’t want to talk to him anymore either. He knew that it would be pointless, and saying anything more might just result in being left alone with no way back to Earth.
He stepped into the portal and thought of home.
***
Where Efrem actually ended up, as best he could tell, was another island somewhere in the Caribbean.
Surviving was a struggle, but he had a mission, a purpose. Efrem managed to survive on his little island for a solid week while he built his escape raft. He needed to get back to the mainland. Someone who knew the truth needed to make it back.
The entire time he was working, he reached for his power, but couldn’t grab it, couldn’t touch anything. The sensation was incredibly frustrating, like trying to breathe through a nose while having a cold.
He finally built his raft out of vines and felled trees, setting off for the land he could barely see in the distance.
Everything went great for about the first hour, but then the sky began to darken as clouds rolled in. The waves grew more choppy, dangerously see-sawing the crude little raft.
“Are you kidding me?” Efrem shouted.
A larger wave came in, ready to capsize Efrem’s homemade boat. He braced himself for impact, but experienced a very familiar flash of light.
Cole Blooded Page 17